1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to the field of telecommunications and more particularly to the field of electronic commerce.
2. Description of Related Art
In electronic commerce, such as conducted over the Internet, markup language pages displayed to a user using a browser typically include a mix of content and advertisements. Thus, for example, a user may see the content of a search engine, such as a search template, along with advertisements from one or more companies. The advertisements, typically referred to as “banner ads,” may include links to other site locations, such as the home page of the advertising company.
As with other advertising, it is understood to be desirable to target the advertisement to a category of users. Thus, just as television advertisements are targeted to the demographic profile of the users who are believed to watch particular programming, companies wish to target online advertisements to the users. One method of such targeting is to display banner ads on pages that include content related to the banner ad. Thus, for example, a web page for an automobile dealer might include an advertisement and a link to a site offering financing for automobiles.
However, some web content is not clearly associated with a particular demographic group or user interest. For example, a search engine is likely to be used by a wide range of users who may be interested in a wide range of goods and services. Accordingly, a need exists for methods and systems that target banner ads to such users. The term “targeted banner ads” is used herein to refer to such methods and systems.